The Economic Times reported that nine gateway earth stations will be established in key Indian cities, including Mumbai, Noida, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Lucknow, by SpaceX’s satellite internet service, Starlink. The opening of Starlink’s satellite internet services in India will be aided by these stations. Through its Gen 1 satellite constellation, the corporation has requested 600 gigabits per second capacity over India, according to an official who spoke to The Economic Times. The spectrum has been provisionally assigned to show compliance with security regulations.
As of right now, the permission permits Starlink to do just fixed satellite service demos and import 100 user terminals. Because satellite networks are frequently seen as vital security infrastructure, an official was cited as saying, “Tough conditions have been imposed to prevent misuse.”
Government Putting Strict Security Scanner of Starlink
The ET article claims that Starlink attempted to hire foreign technical specialists to run the station, but the government has prohibited foreigners from managing the gates until the Ministry of Home Affairs has given its security clearance.
Only Indian nationals will be permitted to run these stations for the time being, the source informed the media outlet. India’s increased examination of satcom systems in light of worries about national security and possible abuse in delicate border areas is reflected in the action.
The purported abuse of Starlink terminals in restricted areas sparked concerns from India’s security services earlier this year. After illicit Starlink devices were found in Manipur and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in March, the Ministry of Home Affairs requested that the DoT look into the matter. Since then, authorities have highlighted the importance of data localisation and frequent reporting to prevent satellite equipment from ending up in the wrong hands.
Starlink to Keep Generated Data in India
Commercial services cannot be provided during demonstrations under the provisions of the interim spectrum. All generated data must be kept in India, and Starlink must provide reports to the DoT and security agencies every two weeks that include user locations, terminal information, and geocoordinates.
Officials went on to say that following the security compliance phase, the government’s final rules and pricing structure will determine any regular spectrum assignment.
Quick Shots
•Key
cities include Mumbai, Noida, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Lucknow.
•Support
Starlink’s satellite internet service using Gen 1 satellite constellation
with 600 Gbps capacity.
•Limited
to fixed satellite service demos and import of 100 user terminals.
•Only
Indian nationals allowed to operate stations until Ministry of Home Affairs
approval.
•Frequent
reporting to DoT and security agencies; data must remain in India.
•Concerns
over misuse and national security after illegal Starlink devices found in
restricted areas.
According to an official announcement cited by news agency PTI, billionaire Elon Musk’s satellite internet service business Starlink would use Aadhaar authentication to validate Indian consumers before onboarding them. Starlink has been given permission by the government to start providing satellite-based broadband services domestically.
As per the release, Starlink Satellite Communication Pvt Ltd, a satellite-based internet provider, has been onboarded by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). For customer verification, Starlink will adopt Aadhaar Authentication, which will streamline, secure, and simplify the procedure.
Why Starlink-Aadhaar Collaboration Matters?
In India, Starlink can currently enrol about 20 lakh consumers, according to an official estimate. The onboarding of Starlink with Aadhaar identification, according to the statement, represents a potent synergy: India’s reliable digital identity collaborating with international satellite technology.
In addition to providing high-speed internet to homes, businesses, and institutions, Aadhaar e-KYC will make user onboarding easier and guarantee regulatory compliance.
In front of UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar, UIDAI Deputy Director General Manish Bhardwaj, and Starlink India Director Parnil Urdhwareshe, Starlink Satellite Communication was designated as a sub-authentication and sub-eKYC user agency. To provide its services within the nation, Starlink has partnered with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
Starlink India Internet Speed and User Limitations
The Elon Musk-led satellite internet company can offer speeds of up to 200 Mbps, according to Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, the Minister of State for Rural Development and Telecommunications.
Impact on Telecom Players Jio, Airtel, and BSNL
According to PTI, the government doesn’t think this will affect other telecom providers. “Starlink can only serve 20 lakh customers in India while providing speeds of up to 200 Mbps. “Telecom services won’t be impacted by it,” Minister Pemmasani told the news agency during a BSNL review meeting.
Customers in rural and distant areas of India, a sizable market for the state-owned telecom carrier BSNL, are the target market for the company’s satellite internet services.
Starlink’s Role in Rural Connectivity in India
According to earlier reports from a number of media outlets, Starlink intends to use its satellite technology to expand the local telecom industry and address connection issues in rural and isolated parts of India.
Quick
Shots
•Will use Aadhaar Authentication &
e-KYC for Indian customer verification.
•Starlink expected to enroll up to 20
lakh customers initially.
•Combines India’s digital identity
system (Aadhaar) with global satellite internet tech.
•Ensures secure, simplified, and
regulatory-compliant customer onboarding.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Astranis.
The world’s absolutely insatiable demand for bandwidth is providing a trillion-dollar market opportunity to the organizations operating in the Satellite Internet industry. Many companies strive to build satellite constellations in low-Earth orbit to provide low-cost broadband on Earth.
However, very few organizations are focusing on the GEO band, where the large legacy communication satellites are operating and orbiting the Earth at a fixed position to provide connectivity to a specific fixed region. Astranis follows the GEO band approach and has become a successful communications satellite designer and developer.
Going through this article will help you learn more about Astranis, its founders, startup story, products, business model, funding, and more.
Astranis Space Technologies Corporation, trading as Astranis, is a private US-based geostationary communications satellite operator and manufacturer. With its offices in Alaska, Peru, and North America, the company builds small, low-cost telecommunications satellites to provide internet access in remote areas.
Astranis – Industry
Astranis is operating in the Satellite Internet industry. Talking about satellite internet, it is a wireless network that covers satellite dishes orbiting the Earth. It helps people in remote locations access the internet and up-to-date information.
The global market size of satellite internet was estimated at $8,231.47 million in 2022 and is projected to grow 13.6% CAGR from 2023 to 2030. Now that satellite internet technology provides users with incredible speed and data, several developing economies like India, Malaysia, Vietnam, and others are rapidly adopting such services resulting in market growth.
In addition to, Astranis, Inmarsat, Viasat, Intelsat, Iridium Communications, and SpaceX are among the top-performing companies in the satellite internet industry.
John Gedmark and Ryan McLinko are the founders of Astranis.
John Gedmark
John Gedmark – Co-founder and CEO, Astranis
John Gedmark is an American entrepreneur who graduated from Purdue University with a BSc and Stanford University with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering.
In addition to Astranis, he co-founded Roosevelt Institute and Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Moreover, he has been an ex-Director of Flight Operations at the X Prize Foundation. Currently, he is the CEO of Astranis.
Ryan McLinko
Ryan McLinko – Co-founder and CTO, Astranis
Ryan McLinko attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics. He worked as Structural Engineer at TALARIS Google Lunar X PRIZE and Systems Engineer at Sierra Nevada Corporation.
Moreover, Ryan is Space Frontier Foundation’s ex-Conference Advisor and Planet Labs’s ex-Spacecraft Engineer. At present, he is Astranis’ Co-Founder and CTO.
Astranis is a team of more than 300 world-class engineers from SpaceX, Boeing, and technology companies like Apple, Skybox, Qualcomm, and Google.
Astranis – Startup Story
Astranis was founded in 2015 by John Gedmark and Ryan McLinko based on the idea that small satellites in higher orbits can provide billions of people with cost-effective access to broadband internet.
It only started in 2016 and was part of the Y Combinator accelerator’s Winter 2016 cohort. It was in 2018 that the company launched a prototype, and in the fourth quarter, Astranis finished the work on its first commercial satellite for a launch on a SpaceX rocket.
In January 2019, Astranis entered into its first commercial partnership with Pacific Dataport, Inc to triple Alaska’s satellite internet capacity. The company successfully launched the 350 kg satellite on April 30, 2023, onboard a Falcon Heavy in addition to ViaSAT 3 Americas and Gravity Space’s GS-1.
Astranis – Mission and Vision
The mission of Astranis is to help 4 billion people who are without internet access get online.
Astranis – Business Model
Astranis follows a unique payload technology that allows frequency and coverage flexibility along with maximum use of valuable spectrum. This approach enables the company to build satellites in 12-18 months, five times faster than the competitors.
Astranis provides bandwidth-as-a-service and unlocks unreachable markets by owning and operating its satellites and offering them to consumers as a turnkey solution. It further allows the company to launch small, dedicated satellites for small to medium-sized nations. Astranis’ all satellites can provide a maximum capacity of 10 Gbps.
Astranis found it challenging to pack the 20 times larger traditional geosynchronous satellites in the satellites about the size of dishwashers while surviving the harsh radiation environment of that distant orbit.
Astranis – Funding and Investors
Astranis has conducted 9 funding rounds and raised a total of $553.5 million. Its latest funding round – Venture – Series Unknown, was led on April 14, 2023, and secured $200 million. 40 investors fund the company, including Andreessen Horowitz, Rising Tide, BlackRock, Sahin Boydas, and Soma Capital.
Date
Round
Number of Investors
Money Raised
Lead Investor
April 14, 2023
Debt Financing
1
–
–
April 14, 2023
Venture Round
1
$200 million
Andreessen Horowitz
April 14, 2021
Series C
20
$250 million
Black Rock
February 13, 2020
Series B
8
$40 million
Venrock
February 13, 2020
Debt Financing
1
$50 million
TriplePoint Capital
March 1, 2018
Series A
5
$13.5 million
Andreessen Horowitz
June 10, 2016
Seed Round
1
–
–
April 22, 2016
Seed Round
19
–
Refactor Capital
January 9, 2016
Pre Seed Round
9
–
Fifty Years
Astranis – Patents and Trademarks
Astranis is registered with 3 patents, mainly in the ‘Electric Communication Technique’ category. Moreover, it has 5 registered trademarks, with ‘Scientific and Electric Apparatus’ being the popular category.
Astranis – Growth
Astranis earned annual revenue of $77.5 million in 2022, with $277,720 in revenue per employee. Moreover, it was valued at $1.6 billion in 2023. The company’s employee count grew by 25% last year, and monthly web visit growth is 163.8%, with 47 949 monthly visits.
Keeping Space Secure: our new Space Force contract
Astranis is ranked 6th among its 111 active competitors. Some of the company’s primary competitors are:
OneWeb
Omnispace
Orbion Space Technology
SES Satellites
Kacific Broadband Satellites
Inmarsat HawkEye 360
Astranis – Future Plan
Astranis plans to launch five satellites, with many more to follow.
FAQs
What does Astranis do?
Astranis is a private US-based geostationary communications satellite operator and manufacturer. It follows the GEO band approach and has become a successful communications satellite designer and developer.
Who founded Astranis?
John Gedmark and Ryan McLinko are the founders of Astranis.
Where is Astranis’s headquarters?
Astranis’s headquarters is located in San Francisco, California, United States.
What is satellite internet?
Satellite internet is a wireless network that covers satellite dishes orbiting the Earth. It helps people in remote locations access the internet and up-to-date information.
